At 12:04 PM 7/22/05 -0400, you wrote:
Today I obtained a Genrad 1797 programming station. It
consists of a
PDP-8a, 3 RK05s, a Decitek paper tape reader, a Remix paper tape
punch, and
a Genrad interface unit. Also with the system is a DecWriter III and 3
RK05 16 sector packs, as well as an alignment pack.
He threw in alignment pack? Nice! It's probably worth $300 by itself.
I have not begun to study the system yet. Quick questions:
1) The Decitek reader appears to have a serial (EIA / RS232) interface.
Can someone
point me to some documentaion on how this might be interfaced
to a PDP-11?
2) Same question as #1, but for the Remix paper tape punch
Can you see what cards they're connected to?
3) What were these GenRad programming stations used for?
They were very big, very expensive and very sophistaced circuit card
test stations. I looked at one at Thom's and it was far larger than your
complete PDP-8.
4) What is the purpose of the GenRad 1795-3010 interface unit?
Probably a TTL interface. Unfortunately I didn't keep any of the GR
docs. There were just too many of them and I would have had to leave
some^H^H^H^H MORE of the DEC stuff to bring them.
I have some info for you about the RK-05s in Melbourne. I'll e-mail you
directly about them.
Joe
BTW, the system looks to be in good condition and was said to be running
before it
was decomssioned just a few months ago. Once I get a 30A 4-prong
receptacle installed for it, I'll fire it up and see what it's all about.
There is a boot pack for it.
Any help or pointers on where to find information on the Decitek reader,
Remix
punch, and GenRad equipment in general would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Ashley